As brick-and-mortar stores can fall prey to burglars and thieves, websites are also susceptible to cybercriminals.
According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach in the United States is $9.44 million. This hefty cost is a lot, especially for small businesses. But you don’t have to be a part of this statistic. Even a simple website backup can do so much for your business.
Website backups allow you to restore your website content in cases of cyberattacks. To know more about website backups, we’ve compiled helpful topics for you in this article:
- What Is a Website Backup
- Common Risks to Websites
- Benefits of Regular Website Backups
- How to Backup Your Website
- Testing and Restoring Website Backups
- Guard Your Website Content with a Robust Backup Tool
What Is a Website Backup?
A website backup is a copy of all website data, including its files, databases, and media content. It guards against potential risks and ensures the ability to restore the website in case of data loss, hacking, or other unforeseen events.
So, what data should you regularly back up? Consider all elements that contribute to the functioning and content of your website. This may include website files, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and databases that store crucial information, like user data and content management system configurations.
Media content such as videos, images, and documents should also be included in the backup.
Website backups serve as a preventive measure, offering you peace of mind whenever something goes wrong. They act as a safety net against potential risks, like accidental file deletion, server failures, malware attacks, or even human errors.
By regularly backing up your website, you ensure your hard work and valuable data remain secure, allowing you to quickly recover and get back on track in case of any unfortunate events.
Common Risks to Websites
Websites face several common risks that pose significant challenges to businesses. These risks include:
- Malware attacks and hacking attempts, which can compromise the security of your website and potentially lead to data breaches or unauthorized access.
- Server failures and data loss, which can occur due to technical issues or hardware malfunctions, resulting in website downtime and potential loss of important information.
- Human errors and accidental deletions are also risks that businesses need to be mindful of. Mistakes happen, and unintentional actions can lead to the deletion of critical files or data, affecting your website’s functionality.
- Website updates and plugin conflicts can introduce compatibility issues, causing errors or even crashing your website.
The consequences of these risks can be detrimental to your business. Downtime can result in loss of revenue and negatively impact customer trust and satisfaction.
And what happens when you lose customer data? You compromise your customers’ sensitive information and damage your reputation as a business.
To prevent these, it’s crucial to proactively implement preventive measures — starting with a simple website backup.
Benefits of Regular Website Backups
Regular website backups offer many advantages that help you maintain a robust online presence:
- Disaster recovery: Backups allow you to restore your website quickly in the event of a security breach, server failure, or any other incident. This ensures minimal downtime and reduces the impact on your customers and operations.
- Data protection: Maintain trust with your audience by preserving their sensitive information and ensuring compliance with data protection regulations.
- Content and design preservation: Whether it’s blog posts, product descriptions, or multimedia files, regular backups ensure that no important information on your website is lost.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and traffic maintenance: Downtime can negatively impact search engine rankings and disrupt user experience. By promptly restoring a website from backups, you can minimize the impact on SEO and preserve your hard-earned organic traffic.
Got an e-commerce website? You don’t need to worry about losing sales in the event of a cyberattack. Quickly restore your site using your backup and keep your store doors open 24/7.
Another example is during a website update gone wrong. With backups available, you can always restore a previous version and rectify the issue promptly.
How to Backup Your Website
With various backup methods and tools available, you can protect your website from potential disasters and ensure your website stays afloat.
Let’s explore different backup options and the process of performing backups:
- Manual Backups: One approach is to manually backup your website through File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or control panels provided by your hosting provider. This method gives you full control over the backup process, allowing you to select specific files and directories to protect.
- Hosting Provider Backup Services: Many hosting providers offer backup services. CodeGuard, for example, provides reliable, cloud-based backups for easy restoration options in case of emergencies. You’ll never have to worry about losing your website’s content.
- Backup Plugins and Software: To simplify the backup process, consider using backup plugins or software. Popular solutions like UpdraftPlus and BackupBuddy offer user-friendly interfaces, allowing you to schedule backups, select backup locations (e.g., cloud storage, local servers), and automate the process.
Testing and Restoring Website Backups
To ensure your backups work in times of crisis, it’s important to do backup testing. Otherwise, you may only discover issues during an actual emergency, leaving you vulnerable and unable to recover your data.
Regularly testing your backups is essential. Consider restoring them on a local server or a temporary website. This allows you to verify they’re intact and can be successfully restored.
When it comes to restoring a backup to a live website, caution is important. Observe these steps to successfully perform it:
- Take a backup of your current website, just in case.
- Upload the backup files to your server and follow the provided restoration instructions from your hosting provider.
- Double-check that your restored website functions correctly and that all content, databases, and functionalities are consistent and complete.
Guard Your Website Content with a Robust Backup Tool
Cyberthreats are ever-present. And while you can’t totally get rid of them, you can minimize the damage they bring by backing up your website. Doing so ensures your business stays afloat and keeps your sales coming!
To ensure you have a safety net in times of emergencies, check out Web.com’s Codeguard. Our tool allows you to easily restore your website’s content and preserve your online presence with one click. Choose from affordable plans that fit your business’s specific needs with prices that won’t hurt your pockets. Easily move to the next plan as your business grows.
Minimize downtime and maximize revenue with Codeguard today!
